Category: Film Review

If “The Cove” and “Blackfish” taught us anything, it’s that documentaries don’t necessarily require facts and figures to support a subject matter. Excessive emotionality will do just fine. “Dinosaur 13” absolutely convinces with its parade of injustice, exploring the wild story of Sue, the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex fossil ever discovered. It’s not a simple tale of ambitious paleontology and specimen recovery, but one of legal entanglements, betrayals, and media manipulation, spread out over the course of eight long, painful years. Cold details surrounding the fight over Sue aren’t enough for writer/director Todd Douglas Miller, who brings in syrupy indignation to fuel “Dinosaur 13,” diluting the picture’s power as a chilling reminder of powermad government types and the persistent corruption that infests the U.S. legal system. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Rich Hill” is certainly not something to be viewed while in a gloomy mood. Covering the basics in dysfunction, poverty, disobedience, and self-destruction, the documentary fights to find poetry in the darkest of details. Marginally successful in its quest to understand the blues of wayward teenagers, “Rich Hill” runs into extended patches of inertia, with this simulation of adolescent boredom often bringing the movie to a full stop. There are some fascinating moments of household conflict, and the circularity of irresponsibility registers strongly throughout the picture. However, directors Tracy Droz Tragos and Andrew Droz Palermo get too caught up in atmosphere, losing track of these lives as they fixate on the artful mournfulness of the effort. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Catherine Breillat is a master of detachment. She’s a cold filmmaker, specializing in uneasy sexual interactions and acts of violation, using interpretational qualities to keep her audience guessing. “Abuse of Weakness” is her most personal feature to date, a study of her own medical issues and experience with fraud, holding out hope that perhaps just this once Breillat might approach her material with an emotional availability, permitting comprehension of motivation, mood, and awareness. “Abuse of Weakness” offers no such comfort, but it does present Isabelle Huppert in a stunning turn of physical limitation and humiliation, carrying the picture’s bruised soul as the helmer tends to the plain details of the story. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Perhaps the golden era of the buddy comedy is long gone now. “Let’s Be Cops” is a halfhearted take on an age-old genre, trying to launch stars Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans Jr. as a big screen team capable of being plugged into any sort of adventure, coasting on their alleged chemistry and individual charms. “Let’s Be Cops” doesn’t feature an entirely unappealing premise, but co-writer/director Luke Greenfield doesn’t do anything to revive the DOA production, which is devoid of laughs, timing, and thespian invention. It’s just. awful. for most of its run time, content to squirm and squeal instead of explode with absurdities, eventually taking the whole thing seriously in a third act showdown that’s as misguided as the rest of this winded film. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The fifth entry in a surprisingly durable franchise, “Step Up: All In” remains an American story despite mounting ticket buying indifference from domestic audiences to the ongoing saga of perfectly groomed young dancers on the hunt to make their dreams come true. Perhaps being so American is what makes these efforts irresistible to foreign audiences, because I can’t imagine people pile into theaters to see insistently flaccid drama performed by blank actors. Another offering of flopping bodies and broken hearts, “Step Up: All In” almost gets it right as it focuses heavily on dance choreography, but soon enough, director Trish Sie loses her nerve, calling up the wet blanket of melodrama to make viewers question why the “Step Up” movies bother with a script at all. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles aren’t strangers to big screen adventuring. Based on a comic that debuted in 1984, the Turtles were the star of their own cinematic franchise in the 1990s, with the original picture presenting quite an achievement in creature fabrication. There was also an underrated CG-animated effort, 2007’s “TMNT,” which failed to catch fire, returning the brand name to television where the premise has found its greatest success. Now co-producer Michael Bay takes a crack at bringing the Turtles back to the multiplex, overseeing a PG-13 production that uses motion capture technology to realize the heroes in a half-shell for a new generation. It’s a major upgrade in technology, viewed throughout the feature in frenetic action sequences, but the screenwriting isn’t up to the challenge, trying to merge classic Turtle interactions with Bay’s customary event movie coldness. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Idiosyncratic and surprisingly bawdy, “Land Ho!” is a travel picture that takes many unexpected turns. It’s modest work, a digital indie from directors Martha Stephens and Aaron Katz, and a film that invests in the charm of its leading men, using long takes of conversation to form characterizations, while glory shots of Icelandic nature play a pivotal supporting part, generating a mild but amusing fish-out-of-water atmosphere to give the feature some needed definition. While two older men locked in banter for 90 minutes probably doesn’t sound all that thrilling, “Land Ho!” is funny, saucy, and periodically sincere enough to launch a perfectly engaging movie with the barest of ingredients. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

I feel bad for writer/director Jesse Zwick, as his film “About Alex” will be compared to Lawrence Kasdan’s “The Big Chill” repeatedly. Yet, he brought it on himself, with “Chill” focusing on a group of college friends reuniting after the suicide of a loved one, while “Alex” is about a group of college friends reuniting after the attempted suicide of a loved one. Neuroses flare up, sex breaks out, and dormant insecurities are paraded around for everybody’s entertainment. The primary difference is that Zwick doesn’t have Kasdan’s touch when it comes to characterization, but “About Alex” certainly isn’t an embarrassment, delivering a few surprisingly competent performances and a dollop of honesty as it plays a convincing game of grand theft movie. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Perhaps it’s a bit painful to realize, but “Twister” is nearly 20 years old. The monster storm extravaganza, one of the pioneering efforts of the digital disaster movie movement of the 1990s, was a massive success back in 1996, but failed to spawn a league of imitators (save for a double shot of volcano efforts in 1997). “Into the Storm” finally steps up as the next huge nature-gone-nuts production, but instead of trusting the inherent horror of a tornado touchdown, the producers have elected to transform the premise into a found footage feature. While “Into the Storm” has a mighty roar when it comes to scenes of mass destruction, the rest is insufferable, pinned between a paint-by-numbers screenplay and a feeble storytelling trend that only encourages filmmaking laziness. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Director Lasse Hallstrom has built a career out of safe entertainment. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with this artistic ambition, it’s rendered his filmography predictable, without only a few odd diversions interrupting the norm. The helmer of “Chocolat” returns to the world of food with “The Hundred-Foot Journey,” a completely mild tale of romance and redemption coated with a familiar Hallstrom glaze, often caught straining for audience approval when its cast of characters deserves a more exhaustive examination. It’s a pretty movie, always aiming to please, but the picture overstays its welcome, eventually trading the reliably routine for the ridiculous. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Damned” isn’t especially ambitious in a genre that could use more invention. Simplistic and hurried, the picture assumes the qualities of a throwback horror experience, following a group into a dangerous area where they’re picked off one-by-one by a malevolent force. Again: been there, done that. Helping “The Damned” reach some level of digestion is director Victor Garcia (“Hellraiser: Revelations”), who at least summons a convincing demonic energy to help motivate the characters into the panic zone. The feature certainly means well enough, with a few trembling performances that sell the moment, yet there’s little to dig into once formula takes over, leaving the effort predictable. Shrieking and bloody, but predictable. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Poughkeepsie Tapes” isn’t a new release. Produced in 2006 and slated for release in 2007, something went horribly wrong along the way, with the picture shelved for the next seven years. In the interim, siblings John Erick Dowdle and Drew Dowdle managed to create a career without the use of their directorial calling card, helming 2008’s “Quarantine” and 2010’s “Devil” (a third film, “As Above, So Below,” is due out in a few weeks). While their subsequent efforts failed to impress, it’s interesting to finally see the origin of their fascination with the horror genre, with “The Poughkeepsie Tapes” a feature of pure shock value in line with similar attention-seeking debuts. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

A few years ago, writer/director John Michael McDonagh cooked up “The Guard,” a darkly comic endeavor that gave star Brendan Gleeson a rare opportunity to show off his range and leading man capabilities, working perhaps the best role of career to its fullest potential. McDonagh has elected to remain in the Gleeson business with “Cavalry,” another grim yet acidic take on the evil that men do. The pairing makes sense, with the actor capturing every detail of the screenwriting, while the direction is happy to hand focus over to the star, permitting the feature to find its surprises, abrasiveness, and thematic intentions with welcome ease. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

While music bio-pics are always difficult to take seriously, 2007’s “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story” effectively drove a sword into the subgenre with its spot-on parody of clichés, absurdities, and dramatic crutches. There have been so many efforts, and few of them manage to capture the soulfulness of both the music and the artist, it’s a wonder why Hollywood continues to try at all. However, the lure of James Brown proves seductive to director Tate Taylor, who follows up his smash hit, “The Help,” with another tale of racial tension and confession, this time celebrating the mysterious ways of The Godfather of Soul. “Get on Up” is a profoundly flawed feature, but it retains an irresistible subject, with Brown’s insanity and adversity making an energetic leap to the big screen. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Up to this point, Marvel Studios didn’t have it easy, but they certainly had an advantage. Mining its most popular characters to create a cinematic universe filled with heroes and villains, the fantastic highlights of icons such as Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man filled the screen with familiar moves of derring-do and outrageous power. But now it’s time for a change, with the creative team turning their sights on “Guardians of the Galaxy,” a relatively unknown property that traditionally earthbound action into deep space. It’s a gamble that pays off splendidly for Marvel, who not only strike gold with this oddball collection of adventurers, but manage to create one of the most satisfying pictures of the series. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

What’s so interesting about Woody Allen’s work ethic is how unpredictable he can be. One year, he’s masterminding Oscar-winning material that plays to his strengths of comedy and melodrama, puckered to perfection, as found in last year’s “Blue Jasmine.” “Magic in the Moonlight” represents one of the writer/director’s down years, where the inspiration isn’t quite there and his habitually sharp timing is off. It’s certainly not one of his worst, but after the wonderful layers of his previous effort, which aced every theme and emotion it pursued, “Magic in the Moonlight” spends much of its run time spinning its wheels, failing to gain traction with laughs and interesting conflicts despite a corker of a premise. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Mood Indigo” is perhaps the saddest episode of “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse.” The latest from director Michel Gondry, the film is yet another explosion of art-school ambition, this time unleashing his insatiable appetite for whimsy on a melodrama, attempting to fuse matters of the heart with visual idiosyncrasy. The sheer craftsmanship of the movie is astounding, with intricate details filling every frame. Gondry can always be counted on for oddity, but “Mood Indigo” doesn’t bother with consistency or, at times, even coherency. It’s a personal flight of fancy for the helmer, who’s so far up into the clouds with this endeavor, he forgets where to land this insistently peculiar picture. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The cleansing process of long distance running gets a new workout in “4 Minute Mile,” a drama that often takes on more than it can handle. Director Charles-Olivier Michaud is blessed with capable performances from key cast members, and the picture gets surprisingly far on its sincerity, presenting some real psychological blockage that takes time to work through. “4 Minute Mile” has the capacity to explore some compelling areas of doubt, but the screenplay by Josh Campbell and Jeff Van Wie goes overboard in an attempt to secure tears, torching the third act with brazen manipulation that nearly sours everything that comes before it. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

To find fault in a picture about the construction of a children’s hospital feels potentially ghoulish, but “Louder Than Words” is a muddled take on a heartfelt subject. Based on a true story, screenwriter Benjamin Chapin has an enormous number of characters and incidents to package into a 90 minute movie. Instead of braiding subplots together to create a richly dramatic viewing experience, Chapin merely samples anguish and moves on the next bit of overwhelming business. It’s frustrating to watch, as “Louder Than Words” does feature some promising conflicts that suggest a more profound film is on the way. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s difficult to discern exactly what audience “My Man Is a Loser” is intended to appeal to. Male viewers should be offended by the screenplay’s assertion that all married guys are nitwits incapable of managing their problems, constantly befuddled by the opposite sex. Female viewers probably won’t appreciate the paint-by-numbers broheim vibe writer/director Mike Young establishes, with strip club visits and exposed male genital humor likely lost on most ladies. Of course, all could be forgiven if the movie was even the slightest bit funny, but Young doesn’t make much room for wit, depending on tired improvisations and a clichéd battle of the sexes scenario to fill up the feature, which runs out of breath as soon as it commences. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com